One of the core functions of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and
Information Administration (NTIA) is to manage federal uses of wireless spectrum
to make the most efficient use of this precious resource. It’s complex,
technical work performed by a team of resourceful engineers who labor behind
the scenes to ensure that federal agencies have the radio spectrum they need to
perform all sorts of mission-critical functions.

For instance, the Federal Aviation Administration relies on
spectrum to safely navigate planes. The Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) depends on spectrum to communicate with weather satellites
tracking storms. And the Pentagon uses spectrum to operate everything from
radar systems to weapons systems.

NTIA’s Office of Spectrum Management makes this possible. And
while the office has performed this vital mission for years, it’s a task that
is taking on added urgency and facing mounting pressure amid skyrocketing commercial-sector
demand for spectrum to fuel the explosive growth of wireless broadband.

The wild popularity of iPhones, Android devices and other mobile gadgets
of all sorts – which consumers are using to upload picture to Facebook, watch
videos on YouTube and devour other multimedia content – is driving
unprecedented demand for bandwidth for licensed and unlicensed commercial
wireless services.

To balance the growing need for spectrum among commercial users and
federal agencies alike, NTIA’s Office of Spectrum Management is collaborating
with the Federal Communications Commission to identify spectrum that can
potentially be repurposed for commercial use and to promote spectrum sharing
across the public and private sectors. Against this backdrop, NTIA’s spectrum
engineers are working closely with federal agencies to ensure that they are
using their assigned frequencies as efficiently as possible.

Multiple teams in NTIA’s Office of Spectrum Management support this
critical work. Two that achieved “operational excellence” in fiscal 2013 – getting
more done with fewer resources, while still meeting exacting engineering
quality standards – are the Systems Review Branch and the Frequency Assignment
Branch.